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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 152 534 6 




Hollinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



REPORT 



OF THE 



COMMISSIONER 



ON A 



STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 



CONCOED : 
GEORGE E. JENKS, STATE PRINTER. 

1867. 






D. of D. 



v_ 



THE STATE OF STEW-HAMPSHIRE. 

House of Representatives. 
June 11, 1867. 

Ordered : 

That the usual number of copies of the Report of the 
Commissioner on a State Normal School be printed. 

Attest : 

C. B. Shackfqrd, Clerk. 



11EP0RT. 



To the Legislature of New-Hampshire : 

By a resolution of the Legislature of 1866, His Excel- 
lency, the Governor, was authorized and required to 
appoint a Commissioner whose duty it should be to 
advertise for and receive proposals for the donation of 
grounds and buildings for the Use of a State Kormal 
School. Also to ascertain the expense of the maintenance 
of normal schools in not less than three of the nearest 
neighboring States sustaining such schools ; to inquire 
into the best method of organizing and conducting the 
same, and generally ascertain such facts relative to normal 
schools as may aid the Legislature in their action relative 
thereto, and to report the same, together with such pro- 
posals and donations as he might receive, to the Legisla- 
ture of 1867. 

Having been appointed to said office, and having ful- 
filled the duties required by the above named resolution, 
the undersigned respectfully submits the following report: 

It cost the early advocates of this system of instruction 
an arduous and protracted struggle to gain for it a recog- 
nition as among the most important means for promoting 
education. Hon. Horace Mann, in Massachusetts, and 
Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, of Pennsylvania, were the 
principal pioneers in this great enterprise of establishing 
institutions, the chief aim of which should be to teach 
teachers how to teach, to make teaching a profession, to 
give the most complete instruction in the various branches 
taught in common schools, to insist on the most thorough 



6 

drill in this department, and at the same time to make 
the method of instruction and of government a specialty 
to which the most careful consideration should be given* 

It is not needful here to give in detail the history or the 
work of normal schools, nor yet to bring forth argument 
to convince your honorable body of their utility and 
benefits. If the people of New-Hampshire pay willingly 
and freely hundreds of thousands yearly for the education 
of their children, it would be absurd to suppose they would 
not pay a few thousand dollars quite as freely for the 
special instruction of the teachers of their children in the 
true art of teaching. If the smaller sum is needed to 
make the larger sum effectual in accomplishing its work, 
it surely is not wisdom to withhold it. 

The friends of education had been seeking earnestly 
and long to find out some sure method of making their 
appropriations of more permanent advantage in its inter- 
ests. College drill and academic training, secretaries, 
superintendents and commissioners, had been employed 
and earnestly put forth their efforts. But the college 
graduate, or even the successful student, does not stop long 
in the common school, and the superintendent or com- 
missioner comes in contact with the school or with the 
teacher but a brief space of time — too brief by far to 
make his services of much avail. Some other agency was 
needed, and must be secured, before the generous appro- 
priations of the people could accomplish their real pur- 
pose. 

The friends of the normal school think they have hit 
upon the right expedient for solving the perplexing prob- 
lem. To instruct the coming teacher thoroughly in the 
special branches he intends to teach ; also as to the best 
methods of awakening thought and forming memory and 
reason into faculty, and at the same time to bind him to 
the service for a term of years, — this seems to be the 



wisest method jet adopted for the improvement of our 
schools. This work the normal school attempts to do. 
It usually takes it members from the most thoughtful, 
energetic, self-reliant young persons, — those who have 
not sufficient means to think of living without labor, nor 
yet so hardly pressed as to have their noblest aspirations 
erushed out by poverty: — those who feel that they are in 
this world for work and are willing to perform their share. 
When fitly educated they become the most successful 
teachers; hence Massachusetts, with her four normal 
schools, beside the one in Boston, can not furnish one in 
twenty of the teachers which are called for at their doors 
as fast as classes graduate. ]N*ew-York, with two, has 
taken measures for establishing four more, while nearly 
all the Western States are showing, by their deeds, that 
they believe they have found in the normal school the 
fountain from which shall flow the influences that are to 
keep alive the interests of the common school in time to 
come. 

Iu most States the accommodations of these schools are 
yet too limited for the reception of all applicants ; hence 
the scholarships are assigned by counties in proportion to 
their population ; the candidates are required to pass an 
examination, and those found qualified are admitted. 
They are organized in classes as in our best high schools ; 
the uniformity in scholarship, up to a given standard, 
admitting of large classes, it requires less teachers to 
accomplish a given amount of work than in almost any 
other school. I am thoroughly convinced that there is 
no other way in which a few thousand dollars can be 
employed with equal benefit to the cause of education as 
in establishing and sustaining a good normal school. 

The expense of such a school will not be greater to the 
State than that of our Reform School. We have come to 
think the utility of that institution is sufficient compen- 



8 

sation for its cost. But how much greater would be the 
work and benefit of a normal school ! In the Reform 
School we labor to instruct, and, if possible, to reform, 
one hundred children, more or less ; and these, saved to 
the cause of virtue and of man, are an advantage to the 
State it would be difficult to estimate. In the normal 
school we shall be teaching one hundred teachers, who will 
go forth in turn and teach tens of thousands of our chil- 
dren, sending their influence throughout the State, per- 
haps throughout the world, and down the stream of time, 
who of us can tell to periods how remote ? 

There is no other agency now known by which the 
interest of the common school can be promoted and the 
qualifications of teachers raised to a higher standard so 
readily and with so small expense as by the normal school. 
Hence this institution is being rapidly adopted by all the 
States in which we find a deep interest m education or a 
true appreciation of what is needed to secure our future 
welfare. In the late Confederate States, in the Border 
States (excepting Maryland), in Utah, and in Indiana, we 
find no normal school. But in Iowa and Minnesota, in 
California and Kansas, as well as in all the most enlight- 
ened States (except Rhode-Island and New-Hampshire), 
it is one of the pet institutions. 

We ought to judge what is our duty from the company 
in which we find ourselves, if we can not find more satis- 
factory reason. 

With regard to the expense of supporting a Normal 
School, it will be very much as the people please to have 
it. In the school of which I now have charge, the salaries 
of teachers, for the spring term of 1866, amounted to 
$2,994; for the corresponding term the present year, 
the salaries amount to $2,075; a reduction of expenses 
iu the item of salaries alone, of nearly a thousand dollars 
for a single term ; yet there are a third more scholars now 
in the school than there were then. For the next term 



the salaries will be reduced $500 below what I am paying 
now, with as good teachers as at present. This is the 
difference between managing another man's business in a 
reckless way, and managing one's own business as it 
should be done. The State can find men ready to receive 
all the funds it likes to lavish ; or it can find men of 
judgment, prudence, and integrity, who will make a dol- 
lar pay for its real value, as well in public as in private 
matters. 

The expense of the four normal schools in Massachu- 
setts during the last few years, has varied but very little 
from twenty-four thousand dollars ($24,000), or six thou- 
sand ($6,000) each, per year. It need not — would not cost 
New-Hampshire an equal sum to support a Normal School, 
and to support it well. Massachusetts pays more freely of 
her means, for many purposes, than we can well afford to 
do, expending much upon officials, which New-Hampshire, 
being long accustomed to habits of economy, would know 
well how to avoid. The yearly expense of the school in 
Framingham is less than five thousand dollars. That in 
Salem costs nearly seven thousand dollars yearly. The 
cost of the normal school in Connecticut varies very little 
from that of those in Massachusetts, and Maine pays less 
than either, yearly, to sustain this branch of education — 
hers costing between five thousand and six thousand dol- 
lars per annum. I think that a good normal school can 
be supported in New-Hampshire for Hve thousand dollars 
per annum ; perhaps, with as careful management as one 
exercises in his own affairs, it could be done for less than 
this. 

The Middle and Western States are expending very 
generous sums in this direction, but we have not their 
means, and must move with a more cautious step. The 
normal school buildings at Trenton, New-Jersey, cost 
$72,500 ; that at Ypsilanti, Michigan, over a hundred 



10 

thousand; and that at "Winona, Minnesota, probably as 
much, or more than both of these. These buildings have 
increased much in value since they were constructed, and 
hence have proved a profitable investment. New-York is 
to erect, the present year, four new normal school build- 
ings, at a cost of not less than two hundred thousand dol- 
lars each. And the cost of conducting the schools in 
these States is much heavier than it has been in the New- 
England States. 

New-Hampshire will need to be.at.no expense for a 
school building — -she having the use of two now tendered 
her. Mont- Vernon makes a proposition to give the State 
the use of Appleton Academy, with the library, apparatus, 
and furniture, so long as it shall be used for the purpose 
of a normal school. 

To Orrbn Perkins, Esq., Commissioner for the State of New- 
Hampshire to receive proposals in relation to the establish- 
ment of a Normal School in said State, $c. 

Respectfully represent the undersigned, that at a meet- 
ing of the members of the Appleton Academy corporation, 
held at Mont-Vernon the 23d day of March, 1867, they 
were instructed to communicate to you the following 
proposition : namely, 

That, provided said school should be established in this 
place, the corporation would transfer to the State their 
academy building, with the land thereunto belonging, to- 
gether with the library, philosophical and chemical appa- 
ratus, a valuable piano, and all the lamps and fixtures 
connected therewith, so long as said school shall be con- 
tinued here. (Estimated value, see schedule.) 

And the trustees would further represent that the town 
has made application to the legislature for the passage of 
an act to enable them to raise a sum, not exceeding five 
thousand dollars, for the purpose aforesaid. 



11 

SCHEDULE. 

Academy Building, with land, $10,000 

Library, 800 

Apparatus, 100 

Piano, 400 

Chandelier and other fixtures, 50 

Furnace, stove funnel, &c, 100 

Settees, 100 



$11,550 



The Academy building, 60 feet by 40. 

And believing, as we do, that this Institution should be 
located in some quiet village, away from the contaminat- 
ing influence of vice and gross immorality which exist in 
cities, represent that (in their opinion) Mont- Vernon is 
one of the most desirable locations that can be found. It 
may be objected that it is not connected with railway. 
But Milford depot is only four miles distant, and, provided 
the said school should be established here, we guarantee 
that a daily conveyance of passengers to and from said 
depot shall be furnished. 

JOHN" BRUCE, ) Committee in behalf 

GEORGE E. DEAN, \of Corporation and 
W. H. CONANT, j Trustees. 

Mont- Vernon, March 29, 1867. 

This academy is in good condition, having been built 
but a few years since. It is situated in a pleasant village, 
four miles from the Milford station, on the Nashua and 
"Wilton railroad. It is situated on elevated land, with a 
fine prospect of distant hills and intervening valleys. The 
location is a healthful one, and I am informed that the 
moral atmosphere is very pure. It is a pleasant place to 
study in summer, especially if the student wishes to be 
quiet with his books a large part of the time. It is less 
convenient of access than would be a situatiou on the rail- 



12 

road ; but if students would find less there to amuse or to 
instruct outside the school-room, they might find less also 
to divert attention from their studfes. There are several 
active friends of education in Mont-Vernon, who will do 
all they can to help on the enterprise, if successful, in se- 
curing this location for the school. 

The citizens of Manchester have also made a generous 
proposition for the location of the school in their prosper- 
ous and growing city. This proposition is as follows : 

City of Manchester, N. H., 1 
Office of City Clerk, March 21, 1867. / 

At a meeting of the legal voters in School District No. 
2 in the city of Manchester, duly notified, and held 
on the 16th of March instant, the following resolutions 
were passed without a dissenting vote : 

Resolved, That school district No. 2 hereby offers to the 
State of New-Hampshire, for the period of five years, the 
free use of the lower story of the new high school house, 
or so much of said house, not exceeding one half the room, 
as the school committee may determine, to be used for a 
normal school, on condition that the State accept the offer 
within six months from date, and as soon as may be there- 
after, establish and locate in the house a State Normal 
School. 

Resolved, That the board of school committee are here- 
by authorized to convey to the State the privilege granted 
by the foregoing vote, and have the care and control of 
the house so long as it shall be used by the State. 
A true record — 

Attest : Joseph E. Bennett, 

Clerk of School District No. 2. 
A true copy of record — 

Attest : Joseph E. Bennett, 

Clerk of School District No. 2. 

I need not speak of the advantages of this location, 
either as a railroad center, the center of population in the 



13 

State, nor of the large number of true friends which a 
school would find there, to cherish it and help secure for 
it the success all would desire. The interest the citizens 
of Manchester have manifested in the Reform School is a 
sufficient guarantee that they would willingly meet all 
their obligations to insure the prosperity of an institution 
which would be of so much advantage to their city and 
the State. 

The rooms they offer for the uses of a normal school are 
ample and sufficient, elegant and convenient. I would 
recommend that a committee be at once appointed to vis- 
it this location, and the other also, if it shall be deemed 
essential, to see what accommodations are awaiting the 
acceptance of the State, that she may put in operation, 
without delay, one of the most necessary and useful insti- 
tutions. There are ample accommodations in the rooms 
at Manchester for a hundred students. Normal schools 
are usually divided into four classes — a new class entering 
once in six months, and studying two years. The classes 
being few, less rooms are required for recitations, and less 
teachers to conduct the exercises. 

Should either of these propositions be accepted, very 
little legislation would be required to establish such a 
school; and even should it not prove successful, there 
would be no loss suffered by the State beyond the cost of 
its support for the time of its continuance. It would be 
necessarj to appoint a Board of Trustees, to secure a Prin- 
cipal and determine the course of study to be pursued : 
also to lend the institution proper aid, and place about it 
proper safeguards. A sufficient number of this Board, to 
look after its interests with proper care, should reside 
where the school is located ; a sufficient number, to guard 
well the interests of the State, should be residents of other 
places, not however situated too remotely to offer counsel 
and assistance in arranging and carrying out the plan. 



14 

The normal school law of Vermont is very brief. It 
establishes one normal school in the academy at Ran- 
dolph, and provides that one such school may be estab- 
lished in each of the other congressional districts, when 
the citizens of some place in those districts shall comply 
with the conditions of the act establishing the first. 
Theirs is established for the term of five years. 

I judge that this would be the most expedient method 
for New-Hampshire to adopt— giving sufficient time to 
try the experiment, but not confining it for all time to one 
method or one place. 

The Vermont law provides for two courses of study; 

the first to include all the branches required by law to 

be taught in the common schools of Vermont ; the other 

course shall include all contained in the first course and 

higher branches ; and a year only is required for gradu- 
ation. 

There would be some great advantages, however, in 
making it a permanent thing from the first ; its friends 
might then collect for it a library and apparatus, and, per- 
haps, secure for it bequests from such benevolent individ- 
uals as have means to give, to promote the interests of 
education. 

It would be well, I think, to provide, in the law estab- 
lishing such a school, for the reception of bequests, 'and 
for their investment and security ; also to apply the laws 
respecting the instruction, discipline, &c, of our best high 
schools to this. 

The branches taught in a normal school should be at least 
Orthography, Heading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, 
English Grammar and Literature, Book-keeping, History, 
Philosophy, Elocution, Higher Mathematics, and the The- 
ory and Practice of Teaching. 

The course of study ought to be two years, but with 



15 

the privilege of entering six months or a year in advance, 
when well prepared in several of the branches taught. 

I forward to the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives, for the use of the Committee on Education, or of 
the Select Committe, if such he shall appoint on this sub- 
ject, a copy of the normal school law of Pennsylvania, 
and of that also of yermont, together with the catalogues 
and circulars of several normal schools, which may aid 
them, possibly, in their deliberations. 

I might give you a detailed account of the methods and 
course of instruction in .the schools I visited at Westfield, 
Massachusetts, Albany, New- York, and other places ; but 
if a school shall be established with the right, man for a 
principal, if not already familiar with the peculiarities of 
this class of schools, he would find facilities in any well- 
conducted school for readily obtaining the information he 
would need. 

I can not close this hurried and imperfect report with- 
out grateful acknowledgments to Messrs. Aery, of Alba- 
ny, New- York, and Dickinson and Greenough, of "West- 
field, Massachusetts, for their kind personal attentions, 
and to the principals of the schools in Maine, Connecticut, 
New-Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, and Salem and Framing- 
ham, Massachusetts, for the readiness with which they 
placed such information as I sought, at my disposal. 

ORREN PERKINS, 
Commissioner on the subject of a State Normal School. 
Winchester, N. H., June 8, 1867. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



III Hill lllllllll II llll 



022 152 534 6 Q 




Hollinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 152 534 6 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



